Christmas

It seems that Fridays have become my posting days. I did not want to let this one go by then without adding to the blog. I was going to post one of my children's sermons but I guess I will do that tomorrow if the internet is working at work. Till then I want to just give my thoughts on Christmas.

Christmas has become such an interesting thing here in Christendom of the USA. There seem to be two sides to the coin. There is the economic side that the government and the culture perpetuates. This we see through all the sales and having to buy gifts for one another. Then there is the church who is celebrating the greatest gift ever that God gave us in Jesus Christ. One could argue that Easter is the greater gift, but we will not debate that. Someone some where must have noticed the easy marriage of these two ideas and stress on buying/gifts. 

It saddens me that we do fall into that. Last night Kessia and I were watching "Its a wonderful life". This movie shows what would have happened had one upstanding man not been born. I noticed at one point the George's kids talked about making presents. Why did we ever get away from that? The things we can do to listen and help make what others really need. Not just things they want. Done this way it might ignore the culture, but honor the gift that God gave us. To clarify I am not arguing to not give gifts, but to only do so to honor God. 

I have to be honest that I did not do that yet this year. My hope is to next year really think about what I am doing with each gift and ask the questions: "How does this honor God?", "How will this show God's love to others?" Maybe you will join me. 

Merry Christmas!